[Taxacom] Zzyzx, was: Re: [HERBARIA] HERBARIA Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10

[Ohl, Michael]

The geographic place name Zzyzx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California) at Interstate 15 has been also used for two different movies: 
 
Zyzzyx Road: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyzzyx_Road (misspelling)
Zzyzx: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx_%28film%29
 
The first movie has been cited as the lowest grossing film of all time, earning just $30 at the box office from six patrons.
 
Back to biology: Zyzzyx is also a beautiful sand wasp genus from Chile and Argentina, which was published by Pate (1937) as a substitute name to replace a homonym. The author did not indicate the etymology of the genus name, but at least my US colleagues assume that it is an onomatopoetic name, imitating the buzzing sound of a flying wasp of this genus. This is apparently only the case with an anglophonic pronounciation, but not for my German tongue. However, it is still the most likely hypothesis for the origin and meaning of that name.
 
Michael Ohl
Museum fuer Naturkunde, Berlin
 

________________________________

Von: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu im Auftrag von Tom Schweich
Gesendet: Do 22.03.2012 15:43
An: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Betreff: [Taxacom] Zzyzx, was: Re: [HERBARIA] HERBARIA Digest, Vol 104, Issue 10




Yes, it's for real, recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:1662336

Their web site is here: http://biology.fullerton.edu/dsc/

and it's pronounced just as it's spelled!

Well, OK, pronounced: Zy-zix.

--
Tom Schweich KJ6BIT tas27 at schweich.com
http://www.schweich.com <http://www.schweich.com/> 
http://twitter.com/schweich




On 3/22/2012 6:52 AM, Veldkamp, J.F. (Jan Frits) wrote:
> Zzyzx --- Is that for real? How do the locals pronounce it?
>
> JeF
>


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